want?”
“I’m here on my own initiative, and I’m here to return something that was taken from you.” The woman who was not one of Rynn’s soldiers held her hands forward, palms up, and a stack of books appeared in them.
“What are those?” Rynn asked. She could have asked where they came from, but the involvement of bald-faced magic seemed to render that question moot.
Juliana grinned. “Books.”
Rynn swallowed. “Fine. You said you had something you needed to talk to me about. Talk.”
“These are yours. They were found lying around on Tinker’s Island after it was abandoned but before you went back to salvage your belongings.”
“Are those what I think they are?”
“If you’re not stupid, then yes. If you are, then probably not.”
Rynn scowled, unaccustomed to having her intelligence called into question. “What were you doing with them?”
“My husband’s doing, actually,” Juliana replied. “But he’s not here right now, is he? And I think he made a mistake. He preaches neutrality, but he took a valuable resource from your side. Your whole rebellion has been born out of this book.”
“That’s where my father learned how to make world-rippers,” Rynn said.
Juliana snickered and scrunched her nose. “I love your name for them. The book calls it a transport gate, in case you were curious.”
Rynn perked up. “You can read them?”
“Of course,” Juliana replied. “I learned to read that language as a little girl. All Kadrin sorceresses do.”
Rynn stared, her tongue too heavy to move. This is it. She’s here to finish me off. Dan found a way to build a world-ripper and sent a sorceress through.
“Oh sweetie, you look like you think I’m going to kill you,” Juliana replied. “I’ve killed a lot of people in my time, and let me tell you, I’m not in the habit of delivering books to them first.” She set the stack down on Madlin’s bedside table.
Rynn let out a breath. “All right, then … if you can read them, what do they say?”
Juliana rubbed at the back of her neck. “There’s a problem, see? Like I said, my husband preaches neutrality, doesn’t want us interfering with your war. There’s no helping the other side, either, and I agree that everyone’s better off without us kneading your dough with our dirty hands.”
“Who are you?” None of this was making sense. Or at least, it was carefully circling around the edges of making sense, dangling sense overhead where Rynn couldn’t reach it.
“I can’t say,” Juliana replied. “And in keeping with the spirit of neutrality, I can’t tell you that every sorcerer in Veydrus can read these books, or that there’s a one-worlded twin of one named Harwick running half of Acardia. I’d be in violation of the spirit of the rule if I hinted that oppressed humans are a bit of a cause of his, and that he might be willing to help if he knew what you were doing. I’d also be dodging some uncomfortable questions if I told you that he could also teach you magic if you asked nicely. Now, if I were to have taken that thunderail of yours and heaved it clear off the tracks for you, well I might actually be standing in a serious pile of shit. But as for all that other stuff I told you, well, the other demons can just piss off for all I care.” With a wink, Juliana vanished.
Rynn stood staring at the stack of books, sweating like a crashballer in her tinker’s armor, wondering what had just happened.
I guess it’s time to find a man named Harwick.
Chapter 4
“Crackle doesn’t separate the men from the boys; it separates the men from their money.”
The thing about cards and ships was that cards didn’t fall over in rough seas. You could play a hand with the ship pitching like a bucking horse, which couldn’t be said of dice or chess. Tanner had never grown accustomed to the worst that the Katamic Sea offered to a ship the size of the False Profit , and he could only imagine how much worse it would have
“I’m here on my own initiative, and I’m here to return something that was taken from you.” The woman who was not one of Rynn’s soldiers held her hands forward, palms up, and a stack of books appeared in them.
“What are those?” Rynn asked. She could have asked where they came from, but the involvement of bald-faced magic seemed to render that question moot.
Juliana grinned. “Books.”
Rynn swallowed. “Fine. You said you had something you needed to talk to me about. Talk.”
“These are yours. They were found lying around on Tinker’s Island after it was abandoned but before you went back to salvage your belongings.”
“Are those what I think they are?”
“If you’re not stupid, then yes. If you are, then probably not.”
Rynn scowled, unaccustomed to having her intelligence called into question. “What were you doing with them?”
“My husband’s doing, actually,” Juliana replied. “But he’s not here right now, is he? And I think he made a mistake. He preaches neutrality, but he took a valuable resource from your side. Your whole rebellion has been born out of this book.”
“That’s where my father learned how to make world-rippers,” Rynn said.
Juliana snickered and scrunched her nose. “I love your name for them. The book calls it a transport gate, in case you were curious.”
Rynn perked up. “You can read them?”
“Of course,” Juliana replied. “I learned to read that language as a little girl. All Kadrin sorceresses do.”
Rynn stared, her tongue too heavy to move. This is it. She’s here to finish me off. Dan found a way to build a world-ripper and sent a sorceress through.
“Oh sweetie, you look like you think I’m going to kill you,” Juliana replied. “I’ve killed a lot of people in my time, and let me tell you, I’m not in the habit of delivering books to them first.” She set the stack down on Madlin’s bedside table.
Rynn let out a breath. “All right, then … if you can read them, what do they say?”
Juliana rubbed at the back of her neck. “There’s a problem, see? Like I said, my husband preaches neutrality, doesn’t want us interfering with your war. There’s no helping the other side, either, and I agree that everyone’s better off without us kneading your dough with our dirty hands.”
“Who are you?” None of this was making sense. Or at least, it was carefully circling around the edges of making sense, dangling sense overhead where Rynn couldn’t reach it.
“I can’t say,” Juliana replied. “And in keeping with the spirit of neutrality, I can’t tell you that every sorcerer in Veydrus can read these books, or that there’s a one-worlded twin of one named Harwick running half of Acardia. I’d be in violation of the spirit of the rule if I hinted that oppressed humans are a bit of a cause of his, and that he might be willing to help if he knew what you were doing. I’d also be dodging some uncomfortable questions if I told you that he could also teach you magic if you asked nicely. Now, if I were to have taken that thunderail of yours and heaved it clear off the tracks for you, well I might actually be standing in a serious pile of shit. But as for all that other stuff I told you, well, the other demons can just piss off for all I care.” With a wink, Juliana vanished.
Rynn stood staring at the stack of books, sweating like a crashballer in her tinker’s armor, wondering what had just happened.
I guess it’s time to find a man named Harwick.
Chapter 4
“Crackle doesn’t separate the men from the boys; it separates the men from their money.”
The thing about cards and ships was that cards didn’t fall over in rough seas. You could play a hand with the ship pitching like a bucking horse, which couldn’t be said of dice or chess. Tanner had never grown accustomed to the worst that the Katamic Sea offered to a ship the size of the False Profit , and he could only imagine how much worse it would have
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